Blogs from Moscow, Northwest, Russia, Europe - page 5

It was ten years ago your intrepid travel journalist paid an inaugural visit to Russia, making the journey from Helsinki, before crossing the Finnish border and journeying on to St Petersburg. Prior to the Bolshevik revolution of 1917, this glorious city was the capital of Russia. After his rise to power, however, Lenin had security concerns as St Petersburg is geographically close to rival European powers, and made the decision to move the capital to Moscow. Ever since that visit to St Petersburg in 2006 I've dreamed of visiting Moscow, a European powerhouse and by far the largest city on the continent. The official population of the city is 12 million people, however with illegal immigrants surging to the capital in search of work it's estimated there may be up to 15 million people living in ... read more

I usually stay away from danger, at least obvious danger. For instance, I would like to visit Turkey this fall, but everyone, including the US State Department, says to stay away. But these countries and places below are rather surprising to me, since I have been there. Thailand (southern) Yes, the south of Thailand is known to harbor terrorists, with a large Muslim population. Well, we have terrorists in San Bernardino too. I have been to Thailand about 6 or 8 times, and have always felt welcomed and safe. The Thai people are friendly and know how important the American tourist is to their economy. Bangkok makes the ideal base for travel throughout SE Asia. South Africa Thanks to Barry the V, and Mrs. V, we had a great two weeks in Cape Town. However, we ... read more

R: So armed with reduced baggage (Cate and Clare took our spare clothes etc) and armed with enough Russian supermarket purchases to last a month, we took the metro to Varoslavski Station. Our train was at 23:55 which allowed me only one occasion to think I had lost my passport. Our tickets had been delivered to our hotel so we were ready to go. When the time came to board the train, we headed down to the platform. We were in carriage 1, which was right up the other end of the train. For some reason we rushed, though we knew we had booked spaces. The Provodnitza (carriage attendant) took our tickets and passports and showed us to our cabin. It is a 4 bed room, two bunk beds on either side. You get a box ... read more

R: We began the next day with a breakfast of breaded chicken, which made me ridiculously happy. We took a taxi over to Moscovskiy Vokzal (Moscow Station) for our trip to Moscow. Everything is extremely secure in Russia so to enter the train station we went through airport style security. Though this did at times seem to be a token effort. We wandered through the enormous dark looking station, which was largely filled with nothing, and perused the small selection of shops before heading to the "fancy bit" of the station where the smart Moscow bound trains pull in. To get to this we went through security again. The train itself was very smart - they have recently put in fast trains to Moscow the same as the German ICE trains, and the journey takes about ... read more

"Follow the Moskva, down to Gorky Park, listen to the wind of change." Opening lyrics 'Wind of Change' by The Scorpions Finally making it to Russia (Рoccия), we enjoyed Moscow (Москва) during their quiet season. Some snow on the ground and sub-zero temperatures meant for short line-ups and few tourists. The joys of travelling at these times. Our home base was near to the core of the city where we enjoyed the beautiful Red Square, St Basil's Cathedral and the mighty Kremlin. Wandering the Kremlin grounds was awe-inspiring. Cathedrals, statues, big bells and big cannons. And don’t forget the golden onions! Incredible riches of Russia's imperial past sit in secure display cases inside the Kremlin walls. The armoury houses thousands of priceless golden pieces, bejewelled with diamonds, emeralds and sapphires. The collection is so sickly overwhelming ... read more